​An easy ride to school every morning for our kids is something that we often take for granted, but many children in poor nations around the world don't have the same luxury. In fact, there are about 60 million kids around the globe that don't get to attend school at all every year, and many more drop out after only a few years.

The challenges are often economic, as families need their children working to feed everyone or can't afford books, tuition, and school clothes, etc., but sometimes, geography gets in the way, too. According to UNESCO, children living in a rural environment are twice as likely to be out of school than urban children, and when you add in jagged mountains, isolated valleys, raging rivers, and flooding in the monsoon season, it can be almost impossible for some kids to get to school.

ALMOST impossible. As they 25 examples in photos will demonstrate, some kids will do just about anything to get to school, risking their very lives just to get an education because they know it's their only chance at a better life.

We can all draw inspiration from their sacrifice and dedication, and the next time your kids complain about getting on the school bus, just show them this blog!

With love,Norm:-)

PS Contact me if you're interested in helping kids like these and others around the world get an education.

​These kids have a perilous journey to the remote school in the world in Gulu, China, following a 1-foot wide path for five hours through the mountains just for the opportunity to learn.

​When the Ulnas River in Western India floods every monsoon season, some school kids need to walk a tightrope to get to the other bank of the river and on to school while other ingenious scholars get creative with their transportation!

​There are no school buses in this rural province in Myanmar, so this resourceful girl hitches a ride on a bull to get to her classroom every morning!

​In Nepal, the mountainous landscape makes travel difficult, or sometimes impossible. But undeterred, these school kids ride a sitting zip line over a river to school every day.

This Palestinian girl lives in a refugee camp in Shuafat, near Jerusalem, and when Israeli forces clash with Palestinians in the streets, she has to walk right through them to get to school.

In Lebak, Indonesia, school children can either walk four hours out of their way or take their chances crossing the river on an old suspension bridge that’s literally falling apart.

A chance to go to school is worth a wild ride outside Bogota, Columbia, as these youngsters have to cross the raging Rio Negro River on a half-mile steel cable high above the waters. Attached by a pulley, she travels at up to 50 mph for a minute and can only slow down using this tree branch as a brake! Even crazier, she’s actually carrying her younger brother in the sack!

In the rainy season in Rizal Province, Philippines, youngsters in search of knowledge take a ride across the river on inflated inner tubes every day.

These kids have to traverse these treacherous mountains for 125 miles to get to their boarding school Pili, China every term. With the help of the headmaster, the journey takes two days and includes wading through four freezing rivers, crossing a 650 ft chain bridge and four single-plank bridges.

It takes a lot of focus to keep their bicycle from falling off this foot-wide plank bridge in Java, Indonesia, but it’s a shortcut that saves at least 4 miles on the way to school every day.

With the help of their teacher, these schoolgirls get across the wall of the 16th century Galle Fort in Sri Lanka on a flimsy wooden plank.

To get from their remote island to the nearest school on the mainland in Pangururan, Indonesia, these children pile onto the roof of this boat every morning and afternoon.

Likewise, these kids in beautiful and lush Kerala, India ride to school in a wooden boat every day.

When the bridge over the Ciherang River in Indonesia went out during flooding a few years ago, the village children had no way to get across and attend school…until they started floating to the other shore daily on makeshift bamboo rafts.

But these elementary school students in Vietnam don’t even have a raft to cross the river to their schoolroom, so twice a day they take off their school clothes, putting them in a bag to try and keep them dry, and swim across the deep rapids.

The region around the village of Mawsynram in India is one of the wettest places on earth, with an average of 467 inches of rain each year. Due to the high precipitation and humidity, wood bridges will rot quickly, but the locals have trained the roots of these rubber trees to join and grow over the river, forming a natural and safe living bridge for the kids to cross to school every day.

These pupils have a beautiful but difficult canoe ride every morning through the mangrove swamps o to their school in Riau, Indonesia.

It takes the 20 intrepid pupils of Batu Busuk Village in Sumatra, Indonesia hours hours to walk the seven mile route to school, culminating with a dodgy tightrope traverse 30 feet over the river.

These kids from Zhang Jiawan Village in Southern China have to climb hundreds of feet up a sheer cliff on these dangerous unsecured ladders to get to their classroom.

Crossing this dilapidated and icy bridge in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province, China, this mother and daughter risk their lives for her education.

A ride to school is a precious thing since it helps avoid a long, hot walk, so these well-dressed scholars pack onto a horse cart in Delhi, India.

During the monsoon season in many Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia, the rains flood the countryside and city alike, often cancelling classes if kids can’t find a way to wade, swim, float, or boat to their school.

Floods won’t even stop the children from bicycling to school, though it’s dangerous because they have no idea where the road is beneath the waters.

At that point, getting the young ones safely to school could be a whole family affair. They'll do anything to give their children a better life!

﻿My last few days in Sri Lanka, my computer broke. While that might not be tragic for most tourists headed back stateside soon, I’m actually living and traveling in Asia for the next six months or so, and work from my laptop every day. In fact, I had just invested in a brand new machine before I left the U.S. only a few months ago, which set me back a pretty penny. But since I work remotely blogging for clients, it was a necessary expense. But there in Sri Lanka, in the mountains of Kandy, the cultural and geographic epicenter of the nation, my new laptop went black. It wouldn’t start up again, even after I tried everything and managed to get Apple support on the phone, who suggested I just conveniently walk it into my nearest Apple store (which was in Hong Kong, 1,000 miles away). Since the laptop is my only way to work and earn a humble living, I was understandably freaked out. But in the past when I’ve had technical difficulties, my fear about the situation frothed into a panic, where I was literally sick with anxiety. But this time I was strangely resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to fix my laptop, couldn't work, I’d get fired by all my clients, go broke, and resort to living under a bridge where I'd sing hobo songs and eat fried grasshoppers every night.

Powerless to do anything about it, I figured I might as well enjoy my last day in Sri Lanka. So I grabbed a tuk tuk to take me to the local botanical gardens. On the way, he stopped at an Ayurvedic Medicine Center. Now his motive was just to get me in there to buy something so he’d get a commission, but either way I learned a lot and thought I’d share my experiences with you. Villa Herbarium was neatly laid out in the shade of a grove of palm trees, a healing garden and natural medicine center for just about every ailment you could imagine. The center’s guide walked me from station to station, pointing out the plants and explaining their healing properties. He pulled a few leaves off of some plants and crushed them up in his hands for me to smell.

To be honest, I was mildly skeptical, and focused on getting through the tour without being rude so I could be on my way to the botanical gardens. But then he offered to give me a demonstration. He brought out a small jar that contained a lotion the color and consistency of crushed garlic. He claimed it was a natural hair remover, which was completely safe and totally free of any chemicals. The main ingredient was ginger mixed with a few plants.

So he spread some on my arm and instructed me to leave it there and let it dry for 5 minutes. We continued the tour with the lotion on my arm, and after a while he grabbed a water bottle and a rag and cleaned it off my arm. To my amazement, there was a patch of completely hairless skin. It didn’t burn – it didn’t even tingle – and there was no redness or irritation at all. I was pretty impressed, and listened intently to the rest of his tour. Side note: Damn I have some monkey-ass Ben Stiller arms.

At the end of the half hour tour, he brought me to the ‘pharmacy”, which was a bungalow in the middle of their jungle grounds that had all of the Ayurvedic herbs, plants, spices, oils, and balms for sale. I didn’t buy anything, much to their dismay, but it wasn’t out of skepticism – I just didn’t have room in my one backpack to carry around jars for six months. But he did give me a basic menu of their different natural medicines, with recipes for how to make them. Here are some of the high points, with the main ingredient listed: Citronella oil. A natural herbal insect repellent. Sandalwood oil and aloe creams. Cures wrinkles, dry skin, acne, eczema, dermatitis, and rejuvenates and smooths the skin.

Cinnamon oil. Treats tooth pain, ear pain, and bad breath. King coconut oil. Promotes growth and health of hair. (Many women use it to help their hair grow long. I asked him if it would cure baldness and he said yes and showed me that he used it himself to grow hair. Then again, he had a patchy half-head of hair, but I don’t know if that’s a good thing considering where he started or a bad thing!) Herbal balm. Natural analgesic against aches and pains, sinus problems, cough, and cold. Siddartha oil (red oil). Serves rheumatism, lumbago, arthritis, gout, and joint and muscle pains. Sihini Slim Drops. Made of lime extract but also bees honey, pineapple extract. A glass of water with a few drops before breakfast and in 30-60 days you’ll lose a lot of weight naturally, especially around the belly.

Green oil. I think this is made from green chili plants, and is effective in treating migraines, sinitus, and head congestion. He said it was particularly effective in curing hangovers, because a few drops of this oil massaged into the head and your whole head will start to clear. Kamayogi. This herb is used to cure erectile dysfunction, impotence, and promotes sexual energy. “You drink this you have happy wife!” Ashokaristaya tonic. Cures menstruation disorder and promotes feminine health. Needra. Helps cure insomnia and sleep disorders.

There were also herbs, oils, and tonics to help with snoring, diabetes, dental health, allergies, bronchitis and coughs, blood disease and flow, cholesterol, cardiac disease, and nervous disorders. It’s important to remember that these aren’t some gimmicky miracle snake-oil cures; natural healing using what’s around us in nature has been going on as long as there were human beings until the industrial age when western medicine tried to replace it all with chemicals and synthetic drugs with terrible side effects. In fact, Ayurvedic Medicine is one of the oldest and most revered medical systems in the world, dating back at least 3,000 years in India. This eastern medical practice doesn’t promote use of natural herbs, plants, spices, and minerals indiscriminately or exclusively, but as recommended by well trained and educated Ayurvedic doctors. They also use special diets, meditation, yoga, massage, and other treatments to promote total wellness of body, mind, and soul.

I, for one, am going to start looking into natural remedies and treatments for minor health issues more and more. Who knows, maybe I’ll even be able to grow a thick, full head of hair? I know for sure that their natural medicine works removing it! After departing the Villa Herbarium, I visited the botanical gardens for a few hours. It felt so good to walk among all of the trees and beautiful flowers, taking deep, meditative breaths and blurring the lines between myself and the natural spirit of the world around me. I even forgot about my broken laptop long enough to fully relax. Actually, I felt eternal gratitude that it broke because that's what freed me and led me to that space and time of fully being connected with nature. And just in case I did get fired and lost all my money, I scoped out a nice bush I could sleep behind in the gardens. But do you want to hear something wild? I took the train from Kandy to Colombo, the main city, later that day, and then took an early morning flight to Phnom Penh, all without the use of my laptop. I landed in Phnom Penh late and got a good night sleep, and in the morning I was about to head out to a computer repair center when I tried to turn on the laptop one more time. It came to life, and works perfectly once again. Norm :-) Enjoy these photos from the day, and email me if you want a copy of that menu of natural medicine recipes I took with me.

There are many great architectural marvels in this world: the Sistine Chapel, the Burj Dubai, the Pyramids of Egypt, and the Great Wall of China, but none that stand as a living monument to two peoples’ love more than the Taj Mahal. The iconic marble temple complex in Agra, India doesn’t just have a love story intertwined in its creation myth, the Taj Mahal is a love story. The story starts in the year 1592 with the birth of Prince Khurram, the son of Jehangir, the fourth Mughal emperor of India and the grandson of Akbar the Great. Price Khurram was born to a life of royalty and unsurpassed privlidege, his name changed to Shah Jahan in accordance to custom because he was the rightful heir to the throne after his father.

When he was 14 years old, Shah Jahan was walking with his entourage in the Meena Bizarre and witnessed a girl selling silk and glass beads. She was the most beautiful thing his eyes had ever seen and it was love at first sight. The girl was named Arjumand Banu, a Muslim Persian princess that was a year older than him. Upon meeting her, Shah Jahan immediately ran back to his father, the emperor, and declared his undying love and that he wanted to marry her. The love was mutual and the wedding was set and the young couple wed in 1612.

They lived in blissful happiness and love and in 1628, Shah Jahan was crowned the new Emperor and accordance to the custom, Arjumand Banu was give the title of Mumtaz Mahal, or “Jewel of the Palace.” Although Shah Jahan had several wives (this isn’t the most feminist love story), Mumtaz Mahal was his favorite and the one he truly loved with all his heart. They had many children over the years, until in 1631, Mumtaz Mahal died giving birth to their 14th at age 40. While she was on her deathbed, Shah Jahan professed his undying love and devotion to her, and promised to never remarry once she was gone. He told her before her last breath that he would build the most beautiful monument the world has ever seen over her grave.

After her death, Shah Jahan was so heartbroken that he ordered the whole Emperor’s court to mourn with him for two full years. He honored his pledge to her never to marry again (a big deal for an emperor at that time!) and then set out to plan and build the greatest testament to love the world has ever seen, a mausoleum over her grave so shining and ornate and grand that the world would remember her beauty, forever. It took 22,000 workers and artisans 22 years to build the Taj Mahal, which means “Crown Palace”. (There are claims that after completion, Shah Jahan had the hands cut off of all his craftsmen so they could never build something that beautiful again, though these claims aren’t proven.) The head architect Shah Jahan chose for the job, Ustad Ahmad Lahauri, was not actually from India, but a Persian from Iran, so the late queen’s origins would be honored. They used 1,000 elephants to transport the heavy building materials like slabs of marble and stone. When it was done, the total price tag was 32 million Indian rupees, or the equivalent of $1 billion at the time, which would be much more in today’s dollars.

They used the finest white marble brought all the way in from the bordering country of Rajasthan. Depending on the time of day and how the sunlight kissed it, the marble of the Taj Mahal changes colors; sometimes rosy pink, milk white, or golden yellow, all representing the many feelings he had for his wife. 28 kinds of the most dazzling precious and semiprecious jewels were used, tens of thousands of stones in all. The brought in turquoise from Tibet, jade from China, crystal, lapis lazuli, amethyst and turquoise from all over the world. These jewels were crafted together into the most intricate flowers and then replicated thousands of times in patterns all over the walls and ceiling of the Taj Mahal. Writings from the Quran were inscribed in golden calligraphy on the arched entrances and walls. Built on the southern bank of the Yamuna River in Agra, the Taj Mahal consisted of a spiraling domed mausoleum. Centered inside was an octagonal marble and jewel-encrusted chamber, which was supposed to be the resting place of Mumtaz Mahal. But her body was actually housed in a sarcophagus far below that very spot, in accordance with Muslim doctrines.

In total, the Taj Mahal is 240 feet high and surrounded by four smaller domes and four minarets, or Islamic prayer towers. In front, there is a long series of gardens and crystal clear rectangular pools. The entire Taj Mahal complex is guarded by a red sandstone gateway entrance building and a red sandstone mosque, and jawab (“mirror”) or replica building directly across from the mosque.

Once completed, the Taj Mahal was just the first part of Shah Jahan’s tribute to the inextinguishable love for his bride. He planned to build a second grand mausoleum – this one in all black – directly across the river from the Taj Mahal, joined with a connecting bridge like two lovers holding hands, and there he would be buried when he died.

But Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb, seeing the opportunity to dispose his ailing and heart-stricken father (and perhaps worried that he might spend the whole family fortune on more construction) usurped his father, the Emperor, and took power in 1658. He placed Shah Jahan under house arrest in a tower of the nearby Red Fort of the rest of his days, his only solace that he could see the Taj Mahal out of his one little window. Shah Jahan sat in prison for 8 years until he died in 1666, still in love with the princess he came across in the market so many decades before. His body was placed in a tomb right next to hers in the center of the Taj Mahal, the only thing that is a-symmetrical in the whole structure. Over the centuries, the Taj Mahal changed hands with each new Emperor, ruler and invader. The British changed the gardens from the roses and daffodils that were originally planted to the Wimbledon-like cool green lawns you see today. During World War II and later during conflicts with the new nation at war, Pakistan, false scaffolding and structures were built around the Taj Mahal to confuse and deter enemy bomber pilots.

These days, the Taj Mahal has been named one of the original Seven Wonders of the World. Each year, ore than 3 million tourists from all around the world come to the Taj Mahal to witness its grandeur and learn about the Emperor who constructed it as a tribute to his one true love. Even 400 years later, it is the greatest love story ever built. "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passion of an emperor's love wrought in living stones." -English poet, Sir Edwin Arnold

I recently tried out a strict vegetarian diet for a month as I was traveling through India, the country with the highest rate of non-meat diets in the world. Here are some personal observations, not facts, and I welcome all feedback and comments that will help educate me further on the subject. (I have no doubt I'll be humbled many times over by what I don't know.) So here are 15 things I learned during my month with a vegetarian diet:

1. Your body releases strange and horrible things as you detox from decades of eating meat and purge with only fruits, vegetables, nuts, dairy, and grains.2. While it may seem like a gastronomical torture to avoid meat (it did for me in the past) gaining success as a vegetarian is all about surrounding yourself with good food choices so you don’t even feel you’re missing out. I cheated by going “veggie” while in India for a month, where they have so many curries, stews, and vegetarian rice dishes that I wouldn’t have even noticed meat in there. (And cows are sacred and not eaten.)3. Substitute the words “animal flesh” for “meat” every time you think about dinner and you’ll see it differently.4. While it’s undeniable that there are huge benefits to eating vegetarian, that diet doesn’t necessarily equal healthy. For instance, breads, pizza, ice cream, junk food, and soda are all technically vegetarian. So I think you should clarify if you just want to eat healthier or actually be vegetarian for another reason.5. One of the knocks against a vegetarian diet is that it doesn’t provide enough protein, which animal meat has in abundance. I’m a 210-lbs. (at the time) athletic carnivore, and believe me, that’s not a problem at all. Nuts, avocados, yogurt, eggs, peanut butter, and many other natural foods offer more than enough protein.6. The biggest difference I felt was my energy level. It was more consistent and I didn’t have wide swings of feeling drained and tired and then bursts of energy. I felt consistently alert and active and more calm and relaxed when I was fatigued, not just tired or sleepy. It was like I didn’t burn out and had plenty of energy in reserve always.7. My skin was clear, my eyes whiter, a nagging toothache from an old tooth filling went away, My anxiety was down, my moods better, I slept better, and I felt lighter, not just in weight but in spirit. However, I don’t know what part of this was because I was near the beach and swimming in the ocean part of the time (but only about a third of my time in India) and what was due to my new diet.8. Since food was so good and so cheap in India, I ate at least three huge meals every day, with plenty of fruit shakes and iced coffees and snacks in between, and still lost a lot of weight. While I’ve lost weight before as I travel, I did notice it was different this time because it felt more like bod fat I was losing.

9. I didn’t have any cravings to eat meat, but if I did they were mental – not physical. I’d walk by a restaurant that was offering hamburgers or see an ad for fried chicken and think, “I should want that.” But in reality, I just wanted to taste and eat good food – not necessarily that.10. The first couple days you may feel a little hungry, but after that you feel way more full with less as your stomach and digestive system heals and becomes more efficient. Missing a meal because of travel or whatever wasn’t a big deal at all, where I would have had the shakes and felt panicked before when I ate so much meat.11. Thank God for eggs.12. After only a few days, my taste buds changed and I was more in tune with subtle flavors, textures, and tastes. While a veggie sandwich or a dish of veggies over rice would seem extremely bland to me before, I now really enjoyed and appreciated it. 13. I haven’t done much research on the subject, but it’s apparent there are two reasons for going vegetarian: health, and/or cruelty to animals because they are living beings. I have a good new Australian friend (hi Rana!) who passionately advocates for vegetarianism because it’s cruel for us to kill and eat animals (among other reasons). I respect and appreciate her stance, and that the unspeakable conditions and treatment of animals in slaughterhouses, poultry farms, and generally feeding the modern machine of Western meat consumption are so cruel it’s disgusting. However, I don’t necessarily believe that means we shouldn’t eat meat. I just think we should try to change conditions so animals are raised, treated, and slaughtered in a more humane and natural way. How can killing something not be cruel? I realized that if I was placed in the wild with no defenses, I would become some other animal’s food, probably a bear or a mountain line. Or a shark in the ocean. Is that cruel? I don’t see it as so. I look to the Native Americans and their practices of revering and honoring what animals they killed, and made it a point to not waste anything from the kill. When it comes to being in tune with the cycles and circles of nature, I’ll trust the Native Americans. And purely to play the devil’s advocate, if someone is at a pro-vegetarian protest and a mosquito lands on his or her arm and they swat it, is that cruelty? Do we know definitively that trees and plants and all organisms don’t feel something? If they were out in the wild and it was the option of starve or kill and eat animal flesh, what would they do? Again – I understand and agree with the argument, but I don’t think it’s a completely shut door. In my newly evolved opinion, becoming a proponent of vegetarianism only because you think killing other animals for food is cruel is slightly misguided. I think everyone should rally for better, more human conditions and treatment of animals and less waste, but they are not 100% mutually exclusive.14. Meat looks barbaric and dirty and just gross if you haven’t eaten it in a while. It’s as much portion and digestion as anything. I look at a 6 or 8 oz. piece of steak now and can’t believe that looked tiny to me in the past. That solid piece of flesh has to sit in my stomach until it’s broken down and digested naturally. So when I gorged myself on a 20 oz. steak or a huge cheeseburger or whatever, I realize how long that food was just stuck in my gut, half digested. 15. My month of being a vegetarian is up and I’ve moved on from India to beautiful, wild Sri Lanka. I wanted to try transition easily back to trying a little bit of meat, so I ordered rice, salad, and barbecue chicken last night. The chicken seemed sort of…odd to me. There was so little meat and so much bones, carcass, and membrane to pick around. I did eat a few pieces and it didn’t taste too bad, just like the sauce and the rice that was with it. I fed the rest to the dog who was begging by putting his head on my leg.Going forward, will I be a devout vegetarian? No, I doubt it. (And I don’t think I’d ever give up some fish or seafood!) But I certainly do think this month of eating only plants has given me a new appreciation and even consciousness of what’s on my plate. I definitely have enjoyed the health benefits, and will adapt my new diet so that I maximize those, while sill enjoying a good quality cut of meat every once and a while. When I do decide to eat higher on the food chain, it will be a choice – not a default – and will come with the reverence that I am accountable for extinguishing some living thing’s spirit because of what I’ consuming. I will endeavor to stop indulging, wasting, and eating mindlessly. My feet will tread lighter and my grasp on all living things will be a little more gentle. I’ll try to educate myself about how to eat healthier and more humanely, reducing my negative impact on this earth and honoring what I use. -Norm :-)

Someone opened the front zipper of my backpack again today (happened in Nicaragua this fall, too), probably in the crowded train station. I only had bug spray and a stick of deodorant in that pocket and it’s very apparent they don’t use either of those things in India, so nothing was stolen.

Male friends and relatives are extremely affectionate here. They walk around with their arm around each other or even holding hands. Yet you never really see physical contact or affection between men and women in public, even when they’re a couple.

Every single one of the waiters I’ve encountered is a man.

In fact, almost all of the professional or service jobs seem to be taken by men. With so many people, such high unemployment, and backwards cultural barriers to women in the workplace (or women’s rights at all) I’ve seen women selling fruit and working as cleaning ladies, but that’s it.

People in India go to Dubai for work. They pay a lot, their economy is booming, and it’s much easier to get a visa than the United States. The nice lady who was running my homestay (contradicting my previous statement completely) went over there for three months at a time once or twice a year to work. She had no friends or family there or any life outside of work, but it allowed her to make good wages to send back to her family in India so they could get a little ahead.One consistent thing in the world – everyone is pissed at the U.S. because out visa process is so ridiculously hard, costly, and stringent, especially after 9/11. It’s nearly impossible for good, hard working people from poor countries to go there, even for student or work visas. While you may think this is just how it goes to protect our national interests, it’s ridiculously easy for U.S. citizens to get a visa to any other countries, and a flood of American companies set up on foreign soil to make money from those same poor people, or evade paying taxes back home.

Back in the 1970’s, there was a “brain drain” in India, as many of the doctors, engineers, and smart, affluent people emigrated to the United States because of economic opportunity. Fascinating enough, in the early 2000s when the tech bubble burst and again in 2008 with the recession, many of their children headed back to India to work and live because this country presented better opportunities.

They say the NYPD is looking to hire more police officers of Indian descent so the young guy working at my home stay told me his dream is to go to America and New York to become a cop. However, he's only seen snow on TV and in the movies and thinks the cold and ice looks “nice”.

The dogs here are very happy and tranquil and there are a lot of them. They just curl up and sleep in the sun anywhere – on the beach, on the train track, or in the street. I was meditating (don’t laugh) and deep breathing and stretching on the beach this morning and a dog came right up and laid down next to me to chill.

Speaking of yoga, I took two classes. One was run by a teacher at an Ayurdic medicine center. I was supposedly for beginners but the pretzeling he was asking me to do was inhuman, and they he was confused why my body wouldn't comply. The second class was on the beach in the morning and consisted mostly of breathing and gentle movements, which I liked a lot better

I seriously cannot find a decent Wi-Fi connection here. Everyone says they have great internet when you’re checking into their hotel or contemplating eating at their restaurant, but when they give you the password, it either won’t connect or it connects but the signal is so slow that it takes like 5 minutes just to load a page. It also just goes on and off frequently. I’m really not sure why they can’t figure out Wi-Fi in India considering all of their tech savvy, business acumen, and improved infrastructure. Always a problem and I’ve learned to work fast and keep working whenever I do get a signal. I hate to harp on that, but I need it for work every day so it can be a torturous undertaking. Some of the Indian hotels in the big cities are very expensive but really subpar, mostly inhabited by Indian businessmen. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, but when you go out to the nicer tourist areas, like by the beach, there are a lot nicer hotel options for a lot less money. The countryside is beautiful. Once you get out of the cities and surrounding towns, the little backwater and forest villages are well worth checking out. I saw something really shocking today. I was on the back of a motorbike on the way to the train station and we zipped through a countryside hamlet. As we passed, a skinny yellow dog – no bigger than a small mutt with ribs sticking out - took a running start and jumped right up on top of a 6-foot wall around a house, and then scrambled over. I’ve never seen a dog do that – it was so graceful it looked exactly like a cat might do, and his paws only touched the wall one time as made contact with the wall and vaulted over. I know I’ve said it before, but the trains are madness. And the madness I’m witnessing is on the nicest upscale sleeper cars, not the 2nd class common passenger cars.

Joined in a beach cleanup the other day. I saw a poster for it and decided to help, because I love to volunteer wherever I go and trash containment is such a problem in a lot of developing countries (is India still considered developing?) Shattering my stereotypes, there were a bunch of young Russian hippy backpackers running the clean up. I was assigned to a group with a really cool and really tall dude from Holland and a few others. I added the leader of the Russian volunteers on Facebook to keep in touch, and he proudly told me in broken English that he was called Jesus on social media, spelled Jeesoos. We picked up all sorts of garbage on the beach for about an hour until our bags were full and our heads cooked from the sun. In all, the 12 volunteers gathered about 20 bags. My group was assigned to the temple beach, which was the south end butting up against some rocky crags where a Hindu temple sat. So all sorts of Indian people came to the beach and worship and perform rituals. One of them was to honor their deceased relatives, so they’d make shrines on the beach of lit incense, coins, flower wreaths, and framed photos of their loved ones right by the rocks. So as we walked around picking up trash, we had to be careful not to collect things from these shrines or disturb them. It’s sort of eerie to see these sun and ocean faded portraits strewn about all over the beach. At temple beach there are three huge burial mounds made from the sand (though no one is in them) with Indian religious men sitting on top of them, orange, white, and black ash on their foreheads, amidst smoking incense. People come and these old religious men bless them…for a fee.

In Varkala there are a lot of stores selling Tibetan crafts and you can tell a lot of the workers in town are Tibetan or Nepalese. I’ve been eating vegetarian for two weeks now, save for prawns, fish, or squid a couple of times. With this abundance of amazing vegetable curries, I don’t miss meat one bit. In fact, I saw a dead plucked chicken today in a store and it really looked nasty. The women dress absolutely beautifully in their sarongs, dresses, and traditional garb with bold colors and golden embroidery. It’s so strange but there’s a ½ hour time difference to India: it’s 10 ½ hours ahead of New York. I’ve never heard of a ½ hour increment in time zones, but I guess Nepal has a 15-minute incremental difference! Also, all of India is on the same time zone, though it’s huge. So far, so good on the stomach front. I have suffered from “Delhi belly” at all, though I’ve been really careful what I eat and drink. Good thing, because I’ve noticed hotels don’t provide toilet paper (I carry my own rolls anyway) though they sometimes provide soap. But don't count on it.

And there are very few public toilets in India, or toilets at all for that matter. I read something crazy like only 60% of Indians have access to indoor plumbing and there are far more cell phones than toilets in the country. Good times. Speaking of toilets, there’s a real thing called “Flying Toilets” here. There are so few public toilets or even indoor bathroom facilities in poor homes, that a lot of common people just defecate into a plastic bag and then just throw it down a hill, into a vacant lot, or into an alley. So you actually have to be careful in some areas not to get hit with one of these flying toilets. The other day I saw a French lady who lives here chastising some teenage boys for throwing their flying toilets off a cliff by the sea. They drive on the left side of the road here. Or, more accurately, they drive all over the friggin road including going the wrong way when a huge bus or truck is barreling our way, but they are supposed to drive on the left. The bigger directional problem comes from people walking. For instance, we in the U.S. automatically also walk on the right and when someone is approaching, we move in that direction to let them pass. But Indians and some Europeans walk left with the same intention, and Russians just stand in the middle of it all blocking everyone’s way and not giving a rat’s ass.

There is only one ATM in the beach community of Varkala, the Catholic Syrian Bank. They call checking accounts “current” on most ATM’s all over the world. There are two great institutions in India: the railways, which employ 1.4 million workers (more than the population of a few small countries) and the postal system. My typical breakfast, at The Juice Shack overlooking the beach, consists of fruit, shredded coconut, yogurt, and honey, and also an omelet. I also get a big water and good coffee. That all costs me about $4.75 on average. A good number of people here walk barefoot all day every day, even on the city streets, too poor to even afford shoes. A begging man at the train station was limping around with bloody bandages around his feet, which were afflicted with some terrible swelling it looked like. I can’t imagine the pain and worse, the hopelessness he experiences. There are loads of beggars in the main cities like Mumbai, but in the tourist areas I’ve been too there are very few people begging. Those who are usually are infirm and helpless old people, sitting folding onto themselves in a pile of rags and filth, under the hot sun all day hoping someone takes mercy on them. I can’t describe the look of gratitude, love, and warmth they radiate when I’ve given them just a dollar or two.

The train cars have a food service called Meals on Wheels and they wear black polo shirts with the logo. That makes me laugh for some reason. It’s interesting what I notice and how I feel after I went back to the U.S. for 6 months in between the traveling/living abroad life. This time, I want to document the daily minutiae of my life on the road more. So I’m going to try and take a photo of every single hotel room and place I stay in for the next 6 months. At the train station, there was a room that was a waiting area only for ladies. I’m sure a place for women to have privacy, safety, and be able to care for their children or get a respite from public is greatly welcomed. I like drinking milk tea in the afternoons. They serve it very hot in a little glass, and the glass is so hot, I don’t know how they pick it up. Or maybe I just need to toughen the F up a little. Cheese Naan and butter Naan breads are so good its redunkulous. The vast majority of my meals consist of veggie curries and rice and Naan.

Verkala was really beautiful and had a terrific vibe. I definitely want to go back one day and spend some more time. But it was a place to visit, not to live I think.

I grabbed my camera and a water bottle and took a walk last Sunday afternoon, getting lost on purpose. I walked for about three hours and found myself on a path that wound up and down the sea cliffs and beaches following the coastline heading north. I passed palm groves, shady meadows with cows, small rivers leading to the sea, grassy parks, and secluded black sand beaches. It was one of the most beautiful settings I’ve ever witnessed, and I was truly in the moment. Everything was green and blue. The sunlight reached inside me. I felt perfectly grateful just to be there and breathing. If I have only those moments, it will make the whole trip worth it.

By now, many of you know the term “Chicken Bus” to describe the common form of bus transportation in developing countries. But it occurred to me: since many parts of India are widely vegetarian, should we change the name from “chicken” bus to a more plant-based moniker? Soy Bus? Nah. I rode the Tofu Bus? Too Whole-Foodsy. How about the Curry Bus? Yeah, I like that one.

Like you see in many developing countries, vendors will all sell the exact same thing even though they’re all lined up together. I always tell my friends abroad - whether they’re beggars, street merchants, shopkeepers, or bar owners – to do something to differentiate themselves. I made friends with a Nepalese family in Varlkala who ran a shop and I told them they should serve free hot tea samples or have cultural dance shows or something to bring the tourists in, but of course they just look at me and smile and say: “So Sir Norm, you want to buy something?” By the way, children work right along with the adults 10-14 hours a day or longer. I hate goodbyes, so when I leave a place I don’t make a round of sappy and prolonged adieus, I just ghost. It’s better that way.

There’s nothing much to do at night here – not even bars really – so you tend to get up and retire with the sun.

The few tourist restaurants that serve beers have to do so clandestinely, so they’ll sell you a liter bottle and then pour a bit into a coffee cup and hide the bottle under your table. I’ve only had three beers I think in three weeks here. I had two small glasses of beer last night and I was buzzed! Hahaha. Then again, I’ve always been a lightweight. I should read more but I’ve been watching a movie every night. I watched Bend it Like Beckham, Slum Dog Millionaire, and Million Dollar Arm while in India. Does that make me a racist? Or just a cultural retard? You take off your shoes before you enter any shop, home, or religious site. It would be extremely rude and disrespectful to do otherwise.

I’m frequenting the class of accommodations that involves a hard wood cot with a thin foam “mattress,” one rock hard pillow, and sheets with blood on them from previous residents’ battles with mosquitos. The rooms have a ceiling fan and a dingy bathroom with a bucket. This costs me an average of $8 a night, even by the beach. The next level up is around $18-$24 a night and may include a TV, an air conditioner you’re not allowed to use unless you pay an extra $10 or so, maybe a desk, and a balcony or bigger windows on the second or third floor. Bathrooms have a drain in the floor so there are no shower pans in most countries. The shower falls right into the room and then the floor just drains. Good system, actually. I bought a mango ice cream the other day and walked about ten steps with it when a little poor Indian kid asked me if I’d buy him ice cream, so I just handed it to him without getting even a bite and walked on. Haha They love cricket here, as well as field hockey, and football (soccer) the #3 sport. They play cricket on the beach every morning.

Anywhere you go in the world, poor and common people visiting from the city go into the ocean in their clothes. Same here. Men go in with their jeans rolled up and no shirts, and women go in in their dresses or traditional sarongs with leggings or jeans on underneath. There is nothing better than watching the joy of these people as they play in the ocean. They wade out in groups, laughing, pushing each other, holding hands in a group, and collectively yelling like they were on a roller coaster at every new wave that crashes into them. They do this for hours. It's purely golden. have seen no greater pure joy. When I close my eyes I can still hear their laughter over the windy sway of the waves.

1.The air quality is so bad in the mega city of Mumbai in India that just one day outdoors is the equivalent of smoking 100 cigarettes.2.India has far more cell phones than toilets.3.Sex toys are still illegal in India.

4.The world's largest family unit – a man and his 39 wives and 94 children – live together in India.

5.In one state in India, police officers are given a pay upgrade if they have moustaches.

6. The highest temperature ever recorded in India was 123.1 °F in Alwar, Rajasthan, while the lowest was -49 °F in Dras, Ladakh.

7.It rained fish from the sky one day in Jamnagar, India. No one still can knows why or understands how that’s possible8. Elections are a massive production in India, so rife with corruption and controversy, drama and political theater that people actually come to the country to experience it, the only place in the world with an Election Tourism industry.9.In big elections, voters' fingers are marked with a special ink to make sure they vote only once.

10.In the parliamentary election in 2009 there it was mandated that there should be a place to vote within 2km of every single person in the country. It ended up there were 830,866 polling stations in all. According to the rule there was a polling station in the remote part of the western state of Gujarat that had a single voter, a temple caretaker.11.There were 1,032 candidates or the Modakurichi assembly seat in the Tamil Nadu state elections in 1996, a world record for most candidates for a single constituency. 88 of those candidates did not get a single vote.

12. An Indian man claims he hasn't had anything to eat or drink in 70 years. No one has seen him do either and after running many tests doctors still can’t disprove him or figure out how it’s possible.

13. The stats about roadway fatalities in India are even more grim: 37% of all road deaths are pedestrians who were hit, 28% cyclists and motorcyclists, and 55% of all deaths occur within five minutes of the accident.14. There’s a village in India, called Shani Shingnapur, where no houses or structures have doors and nothing is locked up. Even shops are left wide open and nothing of value is kept secured. However, there has never been a reported theft in the history of the village, and they believe they’re protected by God.

15. India actually developed a rocket and launched it into outer space. So how did the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) transport the rocket to the launch site? With a series of bicycles.

16. Call it K9 karma, because in an act of atonement, an Indian man recently got married to a dog.

17. At least 50% of the outsourced IT services in the world come from India.

18. They wear white at funerals in India instead of black, most common in other countries.

19. India has a national obsession with breaking records. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, India ranks third behind the USA and the UK in the number of records claimed each year, though they have many other record books they fill up.

20. Cherrapunji in India is the wettest spot on earth, receiving 425 inches of rain every year, more than 5 times as much as the tropical rain forests in South America.

21. Some of the recent world records include the largest gathering of people (891) dressed like Mahatma Gandhi, the longest garland made of cakes of cattle dung (2 km), the longest time performing yoga on horseback (10 hours), a man who typed 103 words in 47 seconds with his nose, and the record for lighting electric bulbs by passing a wire through the nose and out of the mouth: 30 sixty-watt bulbs.22. The largest current slave population in the world resides in India, with over 14 million people forced to work for no wages or against their will every day.

23. The city of Mumbai is so overpopulated and congested, that the government set out to solve the problem by building a second, parallel city right next to it. Navi Mumbai was developed in 1972 and remains the largest planned township in the history of the world.

24. One Indian family has 31 doctors in in it. Known as “the doctor family”, they have 7 physicians, 5 gynecologists, 3 ophthalmologists, 3 ENT specialists, psychiatrists, pathologists, neurologists, an orthopedist and one urologist.

25. A 13-year old boy named Arshid Ali Khan from the Punjab state in India is worshiped as a god, probably because he has a 7-inch long tail, resembling a Hindu God. Local people revere him as holy and take come to him for blessings to cure their ailments.

26. The Indian roadways are notorious for being crazy and dangerous. In fact, there are an average of 2000,000 reported road deaths every year in India, the most in the world.

27. India has the most vegetarians of anywhere in the world.

28. Most Indians still eat the traditional way, with their fingers and the help of bread-like rotis or chapattis to scoop the food up.

29. India has the world’s largest Montessori school, with over 26,000 students in one location.

30. 61% of school children in India have germs or bacteria on their hands that can cause serious diseases.

31. In a part of India called West Bengal, cows are required to have their own photo ID cards.

32. It's illegal to carry Indian currency (Rupees) out of the country.

33. The Kumbh Mela Festival is the world's biggest gathering, with over 100 million people in attendance every time it commences.

34. The typical person in India would have to work at least 6 hours just to buy a McDonalds Big Mac.

35. India is home to the most languages in the world. The 1961 census of India documented 1,652 languages in use in the country at that time.

36. There are more than one million Indian millionaires, behind only the U.S., Japan, and about tied with China.

37. Indian Railways is a massive operation, with at least 1.4 million employees, more than the population of many small countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Estonia, Luxembourg, Iceland, Monaco, and several others.

38. India is home to the largest film production industry in the world, with more than 1,100 movies made each year. That’s slightly ahead of Nigeria, twice as many as the U.S., and ten times the amount of films made in Britain.

39. You’ve heard of the Great Wall of China, but did you know there is a Great Wall of India? Kumbhalgarh Fort in Rajasthan has a wall that goes on for 36 km, the second longest in the world behind only the one in China.

40. There is a special post office in India where you can send letters to God, open for business only three months during pilgrimages and religious festivals. Most of the letters they receive ask for blessings for weddings or business openings, though they do receive a large amount of wallets that thieves lift, remove the cash, and return the wallet to the "God post office" as atonement.

41. Legend has it that the famous Levitating Stone of Qamar Ali Darvesh in Shivapur, India can be lifted with only 11 fingertips if you shout the name “Qamar Ali Darvesh!” as you lift. By the way, the stone weighs 200 kg.

42. India was the only place on earth diamonds were officially found until 1986, when they were discovered in Africa and several other countries.

43. Despite it’s huge landmass, all of India is in one time zone. But it does differ from a ½ hour from neighboring countries and international time standards, making things complicated. So when it’s 6:30pm in India it’s 8am in New York.

44. Complicated surgeries and operations were performed over 2,600 years ago in India.

45. A village in northern India is called Snapdeal.com Nagar. The village, previously named Shiv Nagar, officially changed its name to Snapdeal.com Nagar in exchange for the e-commerce website installing 15 hand water pumps for the villagers.

46. The Kodinhi village in the southern state of Kerala is known internationally as “Twin Town” because it produces such an alarming rate of twins.

47. We know that Indian people love animals, but taking it one step further, there’s an elephant spa, the Punnathoor Cotta Elephant Yard Rejuvenation Centre in Kerala, where the majestic animals receive the royal treatment.

48. The Indian prime minister elect, Narendra Modi, went to the U.S. to take a three-month course on public relations and image management. It must have worked, because he was one of the most popular Indian leaders in memory.

49. An elaborate wedding in Bengaluru was called off when the bride’s family served the groom’s family chicken biryani instead of mutton biryani. Although biryani is the typical wedding dish, the lack of the correct meat source was seen as an offensive slight that led to a big fight, and the cancellation of the nuptials.

50. Since so many Indians speak English as their second language, India now has the most English speakers in the world, ahead of even the U.S. or the U.K.

I had a train ticket heading south to Varkala, a 5-hour train ride along the Arabian Sea to the southern tip of India. I was told there were two train stations to depart Fort Cochi, where I’d stayed for a week. To go south by train, I had to go to the north station, and apparently the southern station only went north. After some haggling with the guesthouse proprietor in Cochi (who tried to overcharge me but insisted I leave a 100% positive review on Tripadvisor) I got my bags and jumped on a tuk tuk to the train station. Although it was only 20 km to the station, it took us an hour, the driver winding down so many back streets and alleyways that I thought it must be impossible for him to actually be on route. But somehow he got us there. The train station was beyond chaotic and I had no idea where my train was, but I managed to ask one person and have them point me in the general correct direction, allowing me to walk ten feet and then ask someone else. By this method I inched my way toward my train. On the platform I noticed a couple fellow travelers – a nice young British couple that were asking about the train to Varkala, too. So I took them under my wing and told them which train was ours. Amateurs! Even though we had seat assignments, it was impossible to decipher their system so we boarded a random car toward the front because that’s where the pointing system led us. It was quickly confirmed that we were on the wrong car, a sleeper car. It was less quickly confirmed that I was on the wrong train, and mine was leaving 20 minutes later. Amateur!

Our train car was ridiculously narrow and instead of seats they just had double padded benches bolted to the wall like bunk beds. Some people laid on these benches and slept. On others, there were whole families crowded in. Blankets and pillows were strewn on the metallic floor. There was no rhyme or reason to the seating, and when someone got up, someone else would take their bench – and their blanket. Children ran around and played and looked for their parents, who relocated when displaced without bothering to notify them. I was surprised that our car had air conditioning. In India, it seems all amenities for tourists are separated into AC and non-AC options. Electricity must be pretty costly, because the AC rooms are almost double the price. Of course I make a go of it with just a ceiling fan in non-AC rooms, which wouldn’t be so bad if you could open all the windows and let the breeze in, but you have to seal the room like a tomb after dark so you won’t be ravaged by the mosquitos. Everything in India is separated into AC or non-AC and also vegetarian or non-veg. The Britts and I shared a bench and got along swimmingly – they were EMTs from southern England taking a two-week holiday in India. We talked about travel and books and shared the cashews and crackers we’d brought. It looked like it was going to be a pleasant trip.

A short man in a navy coat and red tie came through and checked our tickets. He was a mousy fella, with a clipboard and a mustache that struck fear into the hearts of men. As I’ve mentioned before, they love bureaucracy in India. Something about crushing the soul of a fellow human being is intoxicating to them. He checked my ticket, too, and when he saw that I was on the wrong train he grew irritated. “No, no, NO! You get off next station and wait for your train.” “Are you going to slow down at least or should I just jump?” I asked him. He was not amused. He told me the next stop was in about 40 minutes and ordered me to de-board there. “Are you serious dude? Can’t I just stay on this one? What’s the difference?” Yes, he was serious, and no, he did not like being called “dude”; I could tell by the way his mustache quivered like flags on a battlefield. “Or can’t I just pay you extra to stay on this train?” This got the little mouse-man’s attention. For those of you playing along at home, this is called “a bribe” and it’s the only way shit gets done in 90% of the world. He looked at my ticket again and scribbled furiously on his clipboard, then presented a number: 900 Rupees. Of course that was a ridiculous sum, as I had only paid 460 Rupees (about $7.50) for my original train ticket. But the insignificant man had the upper hand and he knew it, so I surrendered by waving my white ticket. I collected my things and waited by the train door, which are all wide open as the train rattles through the jungle just in case anyone wants to accidentally fall out or not-so-accidentally push a loved one out or even jump to their death because they’re having a bad day, all of which would free up a seat. As I waited, I chatted with some nice men who went in and out of the train’s only bathroom. When the door was ajar I saw it was just a hole in the ground with a bucket of water. “Go now if you have to,” the men told me. “Because you shouldn’t go when the train is standing still at the station.” Apparently, the bathroom hole led right down to the ground. The next stop came up in 20 minutes.

“Yes, but it is a local stop, not your stop,” the nice Indian men told me. “You want the next next stop to wait for your train.”

But there was something blocking the track a ways ahead so we ended up having to wait. Everyone got off our car and milled on the platform. There was nothing but jungle and people and a Christian college with yellow walls watching from the top of a hill, like a man in a big hat looking down disapprovingly.

As we waited, the other cars spilled open and their passengers streamed out like ants from a rotten mango. I saw there were sleeper cards, 1st class cars, and finally 2nd class cars for the commoners, and these were mostly men wearing only the traditional wrap-around loincloths. They were decorated with colorful paint on their foreheads and wreaths of flowers. They wore no shoes and carried everything they owned in bundles on their heads. Someone told me there was a big religious ceremony being held at a temple in the south, so they were all holy men on a pilgrimage. They all had beards that grew sideways and the warmest smiling eyes. Everywhere they walked, yellow, pink, and white flower pedals were scattered on the ground. It was hot on the track so we pressed into the train’s shade. The jovial men from my car surrounded me and asked me questions where I’m from and where I’m going. They wanted to take photos with me but the didn’t have cameras so they asked for my phone and snapped photos of us with my camera, though I still don’t understand how that benefits them. They laughed that I sweated. I told them my dilemma with the wrong train and the hostile ticket checker and they just brushed it off and said, “Don’t worry. You don’t have to get off.” One official in a pressed white shirt emerged from the crowd and checked my ticket and confirmed I could stay. There was no announcement when we were ready to go, the train just started moving. The ants sprinted and pushed and jumped to get back into the mango. I was the last one on the track and the doorway was filled with standing men, so I had to jump, too, and hang on for dear life on the outside and hope I didn’t get hit by a tree or a sign until the aisle cleared and I could climb inside. I settled into the sleeper car with my British friends and we started watching a bad kung fu movie on my laptop. Genghis Kahn soon came around and look horrified that I was still on his train. I told him that it was ok because the other official in the white shirt told me I could stay. He informed me there is no other official, and now I really needed to get off the train at the next stop. He said it would be about an hour. In twenty minutes the train stopped at a station and the little terrible man came around and yelled at me to get off immediately. I tried to collect my things and pack up my computer quickly, but I was in a panic. Nuts went flying everywhere. They were just cashews, luckily – not my own. The train started moving again and the terrible man yelled at me and I leapt off without saying a proper goodbye to my British friends.

After a long wait in the sun, the next train did come. I got on the wrong train car again but this time people were nice. It was almost full but someone moved their backpack so I had an open seat and it even reclined. The rest of the 3-½ hour trip was pleasant, as I took out my laptop again and watched the kung fu flick with a little Indian boy and his dad looking on. I ate my lunch – crackers and Coke, which I always travel with because they help with motion sickness. There were vendors carrying all sorts of moms and masalas, dals and paneers, and chai, coffee and tea, selling them up and down the aisle so everyone could eat. It was nice.

By the time we arrived in Varkala at dusk, the little boy was fast asleep and had to be carried out by his dad. Outside the station, I got in a 1950s Indian Ambassador model taxi that drove me to a homestay with peeling paint called the Green House near the sea cliffs. It was a bumpy, dusty ride but I didn’t mind: with the window rolled down, the air smelled clean and I could hear the ocean crashing below. And at least he came to a full stop for me to get out.

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Norm Schriever

Norm Schriever is a best-selling author, expat, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. He travels the globe, telling the stories of the people he finds, and hopes to make the world a little bit better place with his words.

Norm is a professional blogger, digital marketer for smart brands around the world, and writes for the Huffington Post, Hotels.com, and others.